Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology

Australian Aboriginal religion and

mythology is the sacred spirituality represented
in the stories performed by Aboriginal
Australians within each of the language groups
across Australia in their ceremonies. Aboriginal
spirituality includes the Dreamtime (the
Dreaming), songlines, and Aboriginal oral
literature. The Djabugay language group's mythical being, Damarri,
transformed into a mountain range, is seen lying on his
Aboriginal spirituality often conveys back above the Barron River Gorge, looking upwards to the
descriptions of each group's local cultural skies, within north-east Australia's wet tropical forested
landscape, adding meaning to the whole landscape.
country's topography from oral history told by
ancestors from some of the earliest recorded
history. Most of these spiritualities belong to specific groups, but some span the whole continent in one form
or another.

Antiquity
An Australian linguist, R. M. W. Dixon, recording Aboriginal myths in their original languages,
encountered coincidences between some of the landscape details being told about within various myths, and
scientific discoveries being made about the same landscapes.[1] In the case of the Atherton Tableland, myths
tell of the origins of Lake Eacham, Lake Barrine, and Lake Euramoo. Geological research dated the
formative volcanic explosions described by Aboriginal myth tellers as having occurred more than 10,000
years ago. Pollen fossil sampling from the silt which had settled to the bottom of the craters confirmed the
Aboriginal myth-tellers' story. When the craters were formed, eucalyptus forests dominated rather than the
current wet tropical rainforests.[2][3][a]

Dixon observed from the evidence available that Aboriginal myths regarding the origin of the Crater Lakes
might be dated as accurate back to 10,000 years ago.[2] Further investigation of the material by the
Australian Heritage Commission led to the Crater Lakes myth being listed nationally on the Register of the
National Estate,[4] and included within Australia's World Heritage nomination of the wet tropical forests, as
an "unparalleled human record of events dating back to the Pleistocene era."[5]

Since then, Dixon has assembled a number of similar examples of Australian Aboriginal myths that
accurately describe landscapes of an ancient past. He particularly noted the numerous myths telling of
previous sea levels, including:[2]

the Port Phillip myth (recorded as told to Robert Russell in 1850), describing Port Phillip Bay
as once dry land, and the course of the Yarra River being once different, following what was
then Carrum Carrum swamp.
 the Great Barrier Reef coastline myth (told to Dixon) in Yarrabah, just south of Cairns, telling
of a past coastline (since flooded) which stood at the edge of the current Great Barrier Reef,
and naming places now completely submerged after the forest types and trees that once
grew there.
the Lake Eyre myths (recorded by J. W. Gregory in 1906), telling of the deserts of Central
Australia as once having been fertile, well-watered plains, and the deserts around present
Lake Eyre having been one continuous garden. This oral story matches geologists'
understanding that there was a wet phase to the early Holocene when the lake would have
had permanent water.
Other volcanic eruptions in Australia may also be recorded in Aboriginal myths, including Mount Gambier
in South Australia,[6] and Kinrara in northern Queensland.[7]

Aboriginal mythology: whole of Australia

The stories enshrined in Aboriginal mythology variously "tell
significant truths within each Aboriginal group's local landscape.
They effectively layer the whole of the Australian continent's
topography with cultural nuance and deeper meaning, and
empower selected audiences with the accumulated wisdom and
knowledge of Australian Aboriginal ancestors back to time
immemorial".[8]

David Horton's Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia contains an

article on Aboriginal mythology observing:[9]
Indigenous peoples' regions in
A mythic map of Australia would show thousands of Australia
characters, varying in their importance, but all in some
way connected with the land. Some emerged at their
specific sites and stayed spiritually in that vicinity.
Others came from somewhere else and went
somewhere else. Many were shape changing,
transformed from or into human beings or natural
species, or into natural features such as rocks but all
left something of their spiritual essence at the places
noted in their stories.

Australian Aboriginal mythologies have been characterised as "at

one and the same time fragments of a catechism, a liturgical manual, Geological map of Australia
a history of civilization, a geography textbook, and to a much
smaller extent a manual of cosmography."[10]

Diversity across a continent

There are 900 distinct Aboriginal groups across Australia,[11] each distinguished by unique names usually
identifying particular languages, dialects, or distinctive speech mannerisms.[12] Each language was used for
original myths, from which the distinctive words and names of individual myths derive.
With so many distinct Aboriginal groups, languages, beliefs and practices, scholars cannot attempt to
characterise, under a single heading, the full range and diversity of all myths being variously and
continuously told, developed, elaborated, performed, and experienced by group members across the entire
continent. Attempts to represent the different groupings in maps have varied widely.[13][14]

The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia nevertheless observes: "One intriguing feature [of Aboriginal
Australian mythology] is the mixture of diversity and similarity in myths across the entire continent."[9]

Public education about Aboriginal perspectives

The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation's booklet, Understanding Country, formally seeks to introduce
non-Indigenous Australians to Aboriginal perspectives on the environment. It makes the following
generalisation about Aboriginal myths and mythology:[15]

...they generally describe the journeys of ancestral beings, often giant animals or people, over
what began as a featureless domain. Mountains, rivers, waterholes, animal and plant species,
and other natural and cultural resources came into being as a result of events which took place
during these Dreamtime journeys. Their existence in present-day landscapes is seen by many
Indigenous peoples as confirmation of their creation beliefs...
The routes taken by the Creator Beings in their Dreamtime journeys across land and sea... link
many sacred sites together in a web of Dreamtime tracks criss-crossing the country. Dreaming
tracks can run for hundreds, even thousands of kilometres, from desert to the coast [and] may
be shared by peoples in countries through which the tracks pass...

An anthropological generalisation
Australian anthropologists willing to generalise suggest Aboriginal myths still being performed across
Australia by Aboriginal peoples serve an important social function amongst their intended audiences:
justifying the received ordering of their daily lives;[16] helping shape peoples' ideas; and assisting to
influence others' behaviour.[17] In addition, such performance often continuously incorporates and
"mythologises" historical events in the service of these social purposes in an otherwise rapidly changing
modern world.

It is always integral and common... that the Law (Aboriginal law) is something derived from
ancestral peoples or Dreamings and is passed down the generations in a continuous line.
While... entitlements of particular human beings may come and go, the underlying relationships
between foundational Dreamings and certain landscapes are theoretically eternal ... the
entitlements of people to places are usually regarded strongest when those people enjoy a
relationship of identity with one or more Dreamings of that place. This is an identity of spirit, a
consubstantiality, rather than a matter of mere belief...: the Dreaming pre-exists and persists,
while its human incarnations are temporary.[18]

An Aboriginal generalisation
Aboriginal specialists willing to generalise believe all Aboriginal myths across Australia, in combination,
represent a kind of unwritten (oral) library within which Aboriginal peoples learn about the world and
perceive a peculiarly Aboriginal 'reality' dictated by concepts and values vastly different from those of
western societies:[19]

Aboriginal people learned from their stories that a society must not be human-centred but rather
land centred, otherwise they forget their source and purpose ... humans are prone to
exploitative behaviour if not constantly reminded they are interconnected with the rest of
creation, that they as individuals are only temporal in time, and past and future generations
must be included in their perception of their purpose in life.[19]

People come and go but the Land, and stories about the Land, stay. This is a wisdom that takes
lifetimes of listening, observing and experiencing ... There is a deep understanding of human
nature and the environment... sites hold 'feelings' which cannot be described in physical
terms... subtle feelings that resonate through the bodies of these people... It is only when
talking and being with these people that these 'feelings' can truly be appreciated. This is... the
intangible reality of these people...[19]

Sacred sites
Aboriginal people observe some places as sacred, owing to their central place in the mythology of the local
people.[20]

Pan-Australian mythology

Rainbow Serpent
In 1926 a British anthropologist specialising in Australian Aboriginal
ethnology and ethnography, Professor Alfred Radcliffe-Brown, noted
many Aboriginal groups widely distributed across the Australian
continent all appeared to share variations of a single (common) myth
telling of an unusually powerful, often creative, often dangerous
snake or serpent of sometimes enormous size closely associated with
the rainbows, rain, rivers, and deep waterholes.[21]

Radcliffe-Brown coined the term 'Rainbow Serpent' to describe what

he identified to be a common, recurring myth. Working in the field in
various places on the Australian continent, he noted the key character
of this myth (the 'Rainbow Serpent') is variously named:[21] Australian carpet python, one of
Kanmare (Boulia, Queensland); Tulloun: (Mount Isa); Andrenjinyi the forms the 'Rainbow Serpent'
(Pennefather River, Queensland), Takkan (Maryborough, character may take in 'Rainbow
Queensland); Targan (Brisbane, Queensland); Kurreah (Broken Hill, Serpent' myths
New South Wales);Wawi (Riverina, New South Wales), Neitee &
Yeutta (Wilcannia, New South Wales), Myndie (Melbourne, Victoria);
Bunyip (Western Victoria); Arkaroo (Flinders Ranges, South Australia); Wogal (Perth, Western Australia);
Wanamangura (Laverton, Western Australia); Kajura (Carnarvon, Western Australia); Numereji (Kakadu,
Northern Territory).

This 'Rainbow Serpent' is generally and variously identified by those who tell 'Rainbow Serpent' myths, as
a snake of some enormous size often living within the deepest waterholes of many of Australia's waterways;
descended from that larger being visible as a dark streak in the Milky Way, it reveals itself to people in this
world as a rainbow as it moves through water and rain, shaping landscapes, naming and singing of places,
swallowing and sometimes drowning people; strengthening the knowledgeable with rainmaking and
healing powers; blighting others with sores, weakness, illness, and death.[21]

Even Australia's 'Bunyip' was identified as a 'Rainbow Serpent' myth of the above kind.[22] The term
coined by Radcliffe-Brown is now commonly used and familiar to broader Australian and international
audiences, as it is increasingly used by government agencies, museums, art galleries, Aboriginal
organisations and the media to refer to the pan-Australian Aboriginal myth specifically, and as a shorthand
allusion to Australian Aboriginal mythology generally.[b]

Captain Cook
A number of linguists, anthropologists and others have formally documented
another common Aboriginal myth occurring across Australia. Predecessors of
the myth tellers encounter a mythical, exotic (most often English) character
who arrives from the sea, bringing western colonialism, either offering gifts to
the performer's predecessors or bringing great harm upon the performer's
predecessors.[23]

This key mythical character is most often named "Captain Cook", this being a
mythical character shared with the broader Australian community, who also
attribute James Cook with playing a key role in colonising Australia.[24] The
Aboriginal Captain Cook is attributed with bringing British rule to Statue of Captain James
Australia,[25] but his arrival is not celebrated. More often within the Aboriginal Cook at Admiralty Arch,
telling, he proves to be a villain.[24] London

The many Aboriginal versions of this Captain Cook are rarely oral
recollections of encounters with the Lieutenant James Cook who first navigated and mapped Australia's east
coast on HM Bark Endeavour in 1770. Guugu Yimidhirr predecessors, along the Endeavour River, did
encounter James Cook during a 7-week period beached at the site of the present town of Cooktown while
the Endeavour was being repaired.[26] From this time the Guugu Yimidhirr did receive present-day names
for places occurring in their local landscape; and the Guugu Yimmidhir recollect this encounter.

The pan-Australian Captain Cook myth, however, tells of a generic, largely symbolic British character who
arrives from across the oceans sometime after the Aboriginal world was formed and the original social order
founded. This Captain Cook is a harbinger of dramatic transformations in the social order, bringing change
and a different social order, into which present-day audiences have been born.[24] (see above regarding this
social function played by Aboriginal myths)

In 1988 Australian anthropologist Kenneth Maddock assembled several versions of this Captain Cook myth
as recorded from a number of Aboriginal groups around Australia.[27] Included in his assemblage are:
 Batemans Bay, New South Wales: Percy Mumbulla told of Captain Cook's arriving on a
large ship which anchored at Snapper Island, from which he disembarked to give the myth-
teller's predecessors clothes (to wear) and hard biscuits (to eat). Then he returned to his ship
and sailed away. Mumbulla told how his predecessors rejected Captain Cook's gifts,
throwing them into the sea.[28]
Cardwell, Queensland: Chloe Grant and Rosie Runaway told of how Captain Cook and his
group seemed to stand up out of the sea with the white skin of ancestral spirits, returning to
their descendants. Captain Cook arrived first offering a pipe and tobacco to smoke (which
was dismissed as a 'burning thing... stuck in his mouth'), then boiling a billy of tea (which
was dismissed as scalding 'dirty water'), next baking flour on the coals (which was rejected
as smelling 'stale' and thrown away untasted), finally boiling beef (which smelled well, and
tasted okay, once the salty skin was wiped off). Captain Cook and group then left, sailing
away to the north, leaving Chloe Grant and Rosie Runaway's predecessors beating the
ground with their fists, fearfully sorry to see the spirits of their ancestors depart in this way.[2]
South-eastern side of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland: Rolly Gilbert told of how
Captain Cook and others sailed the oceans in a boat, and decided to come to see Australia.
There he encountered a couple of Rolly's predecessors whom he first intended to shoot, but
instead tricked them into revealing the local population's main camping area, after which
they:[29]

set up the people [cattle industry] to go down the countryside and shoot people down, just like
animal, they left them lying there for the hawks and crows... So a lot of old people and young
people were struck by the head with the end of a gun and left there. They wanted to get the
people wiped out because Europeans in Queensland had to run their stock: horses and cattle.

Victoria River: it is told in a Captain Cook saga that Captain Cook sailed from London to
Sydney to acquire land. Admiring the country, he landed bullocks and men with firearms,
following which local Aboriginal peoples in the Sydney area were massacred. Captain Cook
made his way to Darwin, where he sent armed horsemen to hunt down the Aboriginal people
in the Victoria River country, founding the city of Darwin and giving police plus cattle station
managers orders on how to treat Aboriginal people.[30]
Kimberley: Numerous Aboriginal myth-tellers say that Captain Cook is a European culture
hero who landed in Australia. Using gunpowder, he set a precedent for the treatment of
Aboriginal peoples throughout Australia, including the Kimberley. On returning to his home,
he claimed he had not seen any Aboriginal peoples, and advised that the country was a vast
and empty land which settlers could come and claim for themselves. In this myth, Captain
Cook introduced 'Cook's Law', upon which the settlers rely. The Aboriginal people note,
however, that this is a recent, unjust and false law compared to Aboriginal law.[31]

Views on death
The response to death in Aboriginal religion may seem similar in some respects to that to be found in
European traditions - notably in regard to the holding of a ceremony to mark the death of an individual and
the observance of a period of mourning for that individual. Any such similarity, however, is, at best, only
superficial (with ceremony and mourning of some kind being common to most, if not all, human cultures).
In death - as in life - Aboriginal spirituality gives pre-eminence to the land and sees the deceased as linked
indissolubly, by a web of subtle connections, to that greater whole: "For Aboriginal people when a person
dies some form of the persons spirit and also their bones go back to the country they were born in".[32]
"Aborigine people [sic] believe that they share their being with their country and all that is within it". "So
when a person dies their country suffers, trees die and become scarred because it is believed that they came
into being because of the deceased person".[32]

When an Aboriginal person dies the families have death ceremonies called the "Sorry Business". During
this time the person is mourned for days by the family and whole community, crying together and sharing
their grief. Often the deceased person's family stay in one room and mourn together.[33]

Naming a person after their death is often taboo, as it is thought that it could disturb their spirit. Photos of
the deceased are often not allowed, for the same reason. A smoking ceremony may be conducted, using
smoke on the belongings and in the home of the deceased, which is believed to aid in releasing the spirit.
The cause of death, often of a spiritual nature, may be determined by Aboriginal elders.[33]

Ceremonies and mourning periods can last days, weeks and even sometimes months depending upon the
social status of the deceased person. It is culturally inappropriate for a non-Aboriginal person to contact and
inform the next of kin of a person's passing. When someone passes away, the family of the deceased move
out of their house and another family then moves in. Some families will move to "sorry camps", which are
usually further away. Mourning includes the recital of symbolic chants, the singing of songs, dance, body
paint, and cuts on the bodies of the mourners. In some Aboriginal cultures, the body is placed on a raised
platform for several months, covered in native plants, or in a cave or tree. When only the bones remain,
family and friends scatter them in various ways, or place them in a special place.[33]

Many Aboriginal people believe in a place called the "Land of the Dead". This place was also commonly
known as the "sky-world", which is really just the sky. As long as certain rituals were carried out during
their life and at the time of their death, the deceased is allowed to enter The Land of the Dead in the "Sky
World". The spirit of the dead is also a part of different lands and sites and then those areas become sacred
sites. This explains why the Aboriginal people are very protective of sites they call sacred.

The rituals that are performed enable an Aboriginal person to return to the womb of all time, which is
"Dreamtime". It allows the spirit to be connected once more to all nature, to all their ancestors, and to their
own personal meaning and place within the scheme of things. "The Dreamtime is a return to the real
existence for the aborigine". "Life in time is simply a passing phase – a gap in eternity". It has a beginning
and it has an end. "The experience of Dreamtime, whether through ritual or from dreams, flowed through
into the life in time in practical ways". "The individual who enters the Dreamtime feels no separation
between themselves and their ancestors". "The strengths and resources of the timeless enter into what is
needed in the life of the present". "The future is less uncertain because the individual feels their life as a
continuum linking past and future in unbroken connection". Through Dreamtime the limitations of time and
space are overcome.[34] For the Aboriginal people, dead relatives are very much a part of continuing life. It
is believed that in dreams dead relatives communicate their presence." At times they may bring healing if
the dreamer is in pain". "Death is seen as part of a cycle of life in which one emerges from Dreamtime
through birth, and eventually returns to the timeless, only to emerge again. It is also a common belief that a
person leaves their body during sleep, and temporarily enters the Dreamtime".[34]

Link to astronomy
There are many songlines which include reference to the stars, planets and the Moon, although the complex
systems which go to make up Australian Aboriginal astronomy also serve practical purposes, such as
navigation.

Group-specific mythology

Yolngu

Murrinh-Patha people
The Murrinh-Patha people (whose country is the saltwater country
immediately inland from the town of Wadeye[35]) describe a
Dreamtime in their myths which anthropologists believe is a
religious belief equivalent to, though wholly different from, most
of the world's other significant religious beliefs.[36]

In particular, scholars suggest the Murrinh-Patha have a oneness of

thought, belief, and expression unequalled within Christianity, as
they see all aspects of their lives, thoughts and culture as under the
continuing influence of their Dreaming.[36] Within this Aboriginal
religion, no distinction is drawn between things
spiritual/ideal/mental and things material; nor is any distinction Murrinh-Patha people's country[35]
drawn between things sacred and things profane: rather all life is
'sacred', all conduct has 'moral' implication, and all life's meaning arises out of this eternal, everpresent
Dreaming.[36]

In fact, the isomorphic fit between the natural and supernatural means that all nature is coded
and charged by the sacred, while the sacred is everywhere within the physical landscape.
Myths and mythic tracks cross over.. thousands of miles, and every particular form and feature
of the terrain has a well-developed 'story' behind it.[37]

Animating and sustaining this Murrinh-patha mythology is an underlying philosophy of life that has been
characterised by Stanner as a belief that life is "... a joyous thing with maggots at its centre."[36] Life is good
and benevolent, but throughout life's journey, there are numerous painful sufferings that each individual
must come to understand and endure as he grows. This is the underlying message repeatedly being told
within the Murrinh-patha myths. It is this philosophy that gives Murrinh-patha people motive and meaning
in life.[36]

The following Murrinh-patha myth, for instance, is performed in Murrinh-patha ceremonies to initiate
young men into adulthood.

"A woman, Mutjinga (the 'Old Woman'), was in charge of young children, but instead of
watching out for them during their parents' absence, she swallowed them and tried to escape as
a giant snake. The people followed her, spearing her and removing the undigested children
from the body."[38]
Within the myth and in its performance, young, unadorned children must first be swallowed by an ancestral
being (who transforms into a giant snake), then regurgitated before being accepted as young adults with all
the rights and privileges of young adults.[39]

Pintupi people
Scholars of the Pintupi peoples (from within Australia's Gibson
Desert region) believe they have a predominantly 'mythic' form of
consciousness,[40] within which events occur and are explained by
the preordained social structures and orders told of, sung about,
and performed within their superhuman mythology, rather than by
reference to the possible accumulated political actions, decisions
and influences of local individuals (i.e. this understanding
effectively 'erases' history).[41]

The Dreaming.. provides a moral authority lying

outside the individual will and outside human
creation.. although the Dreaming as an ordering of the Pintupi people's country
cosmos is presumably a product of historical events,
such an origin is denied.

These human creations are objectified – thrust out – into principles or precedents for the
immediate world.. Consequently, current action is not understood as the result of human
alliances, creations, and choices, but is seen as imposed by an embracing, cosmic order.

Within this Pintupi world view, three long geographical tracks of named places dominate, being interrelated
strings of significant places named and created by mythic characters on their routes through the Pintupi
desert region during the Dreaming. It is a complex mythology of narratives, songs and ceremonies known
to the Pintupi as Tingarri. It is most completely told and performed by Pintupi peoples at larger gatherings
within Pintupi country.[42]

Newer belief systems

In principle, census information could identify the extent of traditional Aboriginal beliefs compared to other
belief systems such as Christianity; however the official census in Australia does not include traditional
Aboriginal beliefs as a religion, and includes Torres Strait Islanders, a separate group of Indigenous
Australians, in most of the counts.[43]

In the 1991 census, almost 74 percent of Aboriginal respondents identified with Christianity, up from 67
percent in the 1986 census. The wording of the question changed for the 1991 census; as the religion
question is optional, the number of respondents reduced.[44] The 1996 census reported that almost 72
percent of Aboriginal people practised some form of Christianity, and that 16 percent listed no religion. The
2001 census contained no comparable updated data.[45]
The Aboriginal population also includes a small number of followers of other mainstream religions.[46][47]

See also
Australian Aboriginal culture
Bush medicine
Cultural landscape
Indigenous Australians § Belief systems
Indigenous Australian literature
Indigenous Australian traditional custodianship
Quinkan rock art

Notes
a. See Lake Euramoo for an excerpt of the original myth, translated.
 b. See Rainbow Serpent#External links.

Citations
1. Dixon 1972, p. 29. 25. Dixon 1996, pp. 1–3.
2. Dixon 1996. 26. Hough 1994, pp. 150–155.
3. NASO. 27. Maddock 1988, pp. 13–19.
4. AHD105689. 28. Robinson 1970, pp. 29–30.
5. Pannell 2006, p. 11. 29. Maddock 1988, p. 17.
6. Nunn 2017. 30. Rose 1984, pp. 24–39.
7. Cohen et al. 2017, pp. 79–91. 31. Kolig 1980, pp. 23–27.
8. Morris 1995. 32. Bird Rose 2003, pp. 163–168.
9. Berndt 1994. 33. Korff 2019.
10. Van Gennep 1906. 34. Dream Beliefs.
11. Horton, David(1994) Encyclopaedia of 35. de Brabander 1994.
Aboriginal Australia 36. Yengoyan 1979.
12. Donaldson 1994. 37. Yengoyan 1979, p. 406.
13. Indymedia map. 38. Stanner 1966, pp. 40–43, as summarised
14. Tindale map. and cited by Koepping 1981, p. 378
15. Smyth 1994, pp. 3, 6. 39. Koepping 1981, pp. 377–378.
16. Beckett 1994, pp. 97–115. 40. Rumsey 1994, pp. 116–128.
17. Watson 1994. 41. Myers 1986.
18. Sutton 2003, pp. 113, 117. 42. De Brabander 1984.
19. Morris 1995, p. 71. 43. Household Census form 2001.
20. Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority. 44. ABoS 4102.0 1994.
21. Radcliffe-Brown 1926, pp. 19–25. 45. ABoS 2901.0 1996.
22. Radcliffe-Brown 1926, p. 22. 46. Mercer 2003.
23. Maddock 1988, p. 20. 47. Marks 2003.
24. Maddock 1988, p. 27.

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Further reading
Waterman, Patricia Panyity (1987). A Tale-type Index of Australian Aboriginal Oral
 Narratives. Folklore Fellows’ Communications. Vol. 238. Academia scientiarum Fennica.
ISBN 9789514105319.
"Dreamtime Stories and The Dreaming in Aboriginal Art" (https://artark.com.au/pages/dreamti
me-stories-and-the-dreaming-in-aboriginal-art). ARTARK. Retrieved 28 August 2023.|

External links
"Dust Echoes" (https://education.abc.net.au/home#!/digibook/2570774/dust-echoes). ABC
Education. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 16 May 2017. "a series of twelve beautifully
animated Dreamtime stories from Central Arnhem Land..." − 12 Episodes, each with
accompanying Study Guide: Whirlpool, Mermaid, Brolga, Morning Star, Namorrodor, Curse,
Moon Man, Be, Spear, Wawalag (or Wagalak) sisters, Bat and the Butterfly, and Mimis.
Yolngu mythology.
Australian Government 'portal' on Aboriginal 'Dreamings' and associated mythology (https://
web.archive.org/web/20150905104602/http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australia
n-story/dreaming)
Ngadjonji Antiquity and Social Organisation (https://web.archive.org/web/20080202233604/
http://earthsci.org/aboriginal/Ngadjonji%20History/antquity/history2.htm) Ngadjonji History of
the Rainforest People

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